The Internet: for More Than Cats

We’ve had a day and a half of pretty steady rain so I thought I would go down to the creek crossing and take some of those “water rushing by” photos like the one below.

Unfortunately Kasey tangled her leash in low hanging branches and while pulling it out I bumped the tripod. The camera tilted over and fell into a pile of mud while I tried unsuccessfully to grab it before it hit. The accident caked the top and side of the camera with a coat of mud, which I brushed off and continued taking photos. I really thought nothing more of it until I got back home and tried to take a photo in automatic mode – one that would normally pop up the flash.

The flash did not pop up, and nothing I did would get it to do so. I got out my old toothbrush and some small dental picks (most good technicians keep a couple of those,) and cleaned out the mud coated hot shoe, and the cracks of the built in pop up flash – but it still wouldn’t work.

After fiddling in the camera menu awhile I discovered that the camera thought that an external flash was attached, which meant that the mud was either depressing something in the shoe or that there was a short in the ETTL contacts. Either way it needed more than just an external cleaning, which is pretty scary since I really can’t afford expensive camera repairs or replacement at present.

So to make sure I disassembled things right I Googled “canon hotshoe repair” and discovered Conrad Erb Photography’s flash repair page here. It was a lifesaver, showing exactly how to disassemble the hot shoe correctly. I was able to get the hot shoe off, cleaned, and reassembled which fixed my flash problem – so hat’s off to Conrad and if you are in Philly and need any type of photography he’s your guy. Trust me someone who loves cameras enough to meticulously detail a repair like this will get your wedding photos done well.

Anyway, here are the rest of my photos – you can see where I was “chimping in” onto the best settings for the light & water speed, and you can also see a series taken through a bridge railing that demonstrates the difference between f 4.0 and f 32.